Friends Are Like...

My mom's cat, Van Gogh (notice the missing ear)
was really excited to have me, & my stuff, home.

I went home this weekend to save my brain. It was touch-and-go for a bit (I claimed Fall was my favorite month), but I think I recovered rather nicely. I came back to Oxford with a hair cut, coffee pot, and gym membership. I'm practically a new woman.

While I was home, I got to have some family time. That consisted, as always, of making fun of my Nana's Alabama accent and looking at old photos that my uncle had put on a DVD. Some were hilarious. My mother...my mother should be SO thankful that I love her enough to not post some of those pictures on here. I'm not sure the readers of this blog would know what to do with the haircuts my loving grandmother gave her. Or with some of her poses. For not liking to have her pictures taken now, she sure knew what she was doing then!

My Nana: pronouncing water as "worter" since 1928 

In addition to family time, I got some Blowing Rock, NC time. Always, always a good decision. It is weird how much someone can miss the mountains. We also met a man in Blowing Rock named Roger. Roger was quite smitten with my mother and men hitting on my mom is always entertainment for me (if any of you know her, ask her about the Titanic Captain in Pigeon Forge. Classic). Anyway, this man was super nice and, after I explained to him that I wasn't 19 years old and that I had a job, I was able to tell him what I do and why I love it. After talking to him for roughly 30-40 minutes, this man looked at me and said, "Put Jesus in everything you do and you'll be successful, because I can see the calling in your face and I can tell your heart is in the right place." Thank God for sunglasses because I almost cried in public in front of a stranger. As if this man wasn't brightening up my day enough, he had kittens. 8 of them. My day: complete.

Don't worry, I left him there. Against my will. 

Sunday consisted of an amazing lunch with even better conversation, Mexican food for dinner because Oxford doesn't meet my Mexican food needs, and watching (and by "watching" I mean sleeping through) The Lorax with my 9 year old cousin. As if the weekend wasn't good enough, I renewed my driver's license on Monday in 20 minutes. Folks, I was IN AND OUT OF THE DMV IN 20 MINUTES. Someone call those Guinness people. I have a world record I need to report.

Though I didn't come back to Oxford with a kitten or a stash of tacos, I did return with new perspectives and a renewed sense of excitement (probably due, in large part, to that coffee pot). I text and talk to my friends from home all the time, but living 8 hours apart makes it easy to forget how amazing they are. Every time I go home, I am never disappointed. I've got a friend in Nashville, working all over the state and even visiting me in MS! (He was the first - other friends, take note). Another friend is Interior Designing up the Eastern part of TN and is in grad school. Her sister is in grad school at UT, being all studious and athletically training some people. I have another friend going to Thailand in January to build a community center. Thailand! I'm contemplating recruiting them to help me run the world. Thoughts? Between the 5 of us, we could sell, build, decorate, and educate, all while being healthy and having a personal trainer. I think I might be on to something...

Anyway. Neeew perspectives. New perspectives are great. Everyone needs them. It is important to be able to listen to others' opinions, consider them, but only be changed by them as much as necessary. You don't want to be an opinion sponge, soaking up the thoughts of everyone else and adopting them as your own. I think I was reminded this weekend how important thoughtful and insightful conversations are. You need people in your life that can listen to you ramble and provide honest, but helpful feedback. You need people that don't always agree with you and you need people to tell you when you are being ridiculous. You need people you can share looks with when other people are being ridiculous. You need people that make you laugh. My job doesn't really revolve around a laughing matter, so I need to surround myself with funny people. Luckily, I know some.    

The first sunset of Fall, my favorite month!

Now, that I've rambled about loving my friends, I'm going to leave you with some really insightful stuff. The title of this post is "Friends Are Like..." I was thinking, "Oh, I'll find a really good quote about what friends are like and I will tie it into this post!" Unfortunately, I turned to other people to provide me with a quote. Upon my internet search of what friends are like, this is what I found...

• "Best friends are like bread knives. They can help you lots, but they can hurt you badly too."  -That's deep. 
• "Some friends are like pennies. Two-faced and worthless." -Quite uplifting 
• "Friends are like roses...you have to look out for the pricks!" -I thought that applied to dating?
• "Best friends are like thighs. They are always sticking together." - ....
• "Friends are like sisters, but like sisters, they grow up, move out, and become apart." -What?
• "Friends are like underwear..." -I can't bring myself to finish that one, but none of my friends should be that close to my butt.
• "Friends are like boobs. Some are big, some are small, some are real, while some are fake." -How insightful.
• "Friends are like the television. Some are like PBS and are always asking for money. Others are like the news, with sad tales to tell every day. Some are like that one station with the foreign language; you don't understand a word of it, but you listen and watch." -I have no words.